Calexico - Falling From The Sky

 #Calexico #Americana #indie/alternative rock #alt-country #Tejano #post-rock #music video

Calexico is a American indie rock band formed in 1996, in Tucson, Arizona, by Joey Burns and John Convertino, who were members of the band Giant Sand at the time. The duo’s distinctive sound is driven by a blend of Americana, Tex-Mex, and post-rock influences. They have released 10 studio albums, including their critically acclaimed 2003 album Feast of Wire. Over the years, they have collaborated with various artists and musicians such as Iron & Wine, Neko Case, and Mariachi Luz de Luna. In 2017, they released their latest album The Thread That Keeps Us. Calexico’s music has been featured in films, TV shows, and commercials, and they have toured extensively in the US and internationally. They have become one of the most respected and influential indie rock bands of their generation, praised for their unique sound and impressive live performances.  From: https://radio.callmefred.com/en/artist-biography/calexico-biography/

Calexico have shared a new video for "Falling From the Sky", a cut from their new LP Edge of the Sun that features Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell. Bridwell doesn't appear in the video; rather, it stars José González as the caretaker for a loved one who happens to be a giant, writhing, worm-like creature.
Director Mikel Cee Karlsson said of the video: The ideas for this video have been lingering for a while, ever since I saw Albin Karlsson and Björn Renner's worm-like creation made for a show at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. In original form, the "worm" was strictly covered in black leather. But I wanted to make it more like a living thing, like an evolutionary side step, a creature that is stuck in its codependency and has rather few possibilities in this world but still has the capacity to dream of better things. I also had the idea that I wanted to make a two part video on the same story and tell it from two different perspectives. When I heard Calexico's "Falling from the Sky" I felt that I heard the perspective of the creature, or rather the perspective of anyone who find themselves in a similar mindset or situation. So, this video is actually part I of II, or more precisely, perspective I of II of this relationship.  From: https://pitchfork.com/news/59376-jose-gonzalez-cares-for-a-creepy-worm-creature-in-calexicos-falling-from-the-sky-video/

The Wild Reeds - Where I'm Going

 #The Wild Reeds #alt-country #folk #indie/alternative rock #contemporary folk #folk rock

Three women and a banjo? Any band fitting those specifications must be a carbon copy of the Dixie Chicks, right? That's just one of the eye-roll-inducing comparisons the Wild Reeds has had to contend with since releasing its folk-inspired full-length, "Blind and Brave," in 2014. Filled with Americana essentials like harmonium and fervent, shimmering harmonies from the trio of lead singers and songwriters — Kinsey Lee, Sharon Silva and Mackenzie Howe — the album bears only minor resemblance to country music's once-scorned Grammy winners. But, that doesn't stop others from inventing parallels between the two.
"People listen with their eyes," Silva, 26, reasons by telephone a half hour outside of Los Angeles. In the band's early days, around 2010, when live shows consisted of open mic nights, and before drummer Nick Jones, 26, and bassist Nick Phakpiseth, 28, solidified the lineup, Silva would get aligned with husky-voiced actress Zooey Deschanel, who also moonlights as a singer in the pop duo She & Him. "Is it 'cause I have bangs?" she asks, referring to the "New Girl" star's distinctive hairstyle.
Silva hopes the tendency to lump girl groups together as interchangeable entities cools now that a feminist movement, re-energized by the current political climate, emerges from coast to coast. "Even though it's been such a gnarly year for our country, it's been great because people are looking for female-fronted bands and they are looking to support bands with minorities," she says.
The Wild Reeds' vivid major-label debut, "The World We Built" (Dualtone), will also help set the band apart. Recorded in Connecticut with producer Peter Katis (The National, Local Natives), the album lasers in on the women's precise harmonies while expanding the sound palette to include spaced-out guitars, beefy drums and whimsical strings. Silva doesn't know what held her back from embracing the electric guitar, but "now it's kind of hard to prevent myself from buying another fuzz pedal."
She also eliminates any speculation that her vocal connection to Lee, 26, and Howe, 27, is intuitive or the result of some shared sixth sense. Credit the stunning melding of their voices to an intensive rehearsal schedule, fueled by Silva's nitpicking. "We really put in the time," she says. Although the album's 11 tracks were written before the election, many have taken on new meaning with Donald Trump in the White House. "We've got this song 'Capable,' and every night I have to resist saying, 'I'm so much more capable than the president gives me credit for,'" she says. "We were never a political band and I don't think that we aim to be, but as a woman, I feel very convicted to tell mostly other women — and other people — 'Hey, we've got each other's backs, we can do this.'"  From: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-wild-reeds-ott-0505-20170502-story.html

Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped

 #Ben Folds Five #alternative/indie rock #power pop #piano rock #1990s #music video

“Song for the Dumped” is a breakup song. The singer rants in an honest and explicit way about the girl who just dumped him. The simplicity of his anger makes the song powerful. He just wants his money back. And his black t-shirt. After everything, it seems like the least she could do.
Shortly before the song, an argument between the band can be heard:
(I hope we got that on tape, because it was a really…)
(Is someone saying something?)
(…it was a really…)
(I don’t know)
(…I was thinking…)
(No, I think I hear some kind of noise — cut that shit!)
(I was thinking about, you know, respecting your work with Steven and…)

The argument was removed from some pressings of the album, although it seems to appear on current CD and digital releases. In 1999, Folds said: The talking before ‘Song for the Dumped’ was a painfully documented real argument that kept bringing up bad feelings. We decided to get rid of it and let the first pressings be for collectors. Better to keep the band together. It was ugly.

I was writing ‘One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces’ and it seemed a little complicated to Darren. And Darren, as a joke—and I guess to make a point—wrote the lyrics to ‘Song for the Dumped’ (without any music or anything) in my notebook next to ‘Dwarf.’ Like, ‘Here’s the way you should write a song. It shouldn’t be that complicated. It should be this simple.’ And I took that one day and made some music to it and showed it to him and we started playing it on tour. I don’t think we ever actually thought that would make the album, but it made the album.

So you wanted
To take a break
Slow it down some
And have some space
Well, fuck you too

Give me my money back
Give me my money back
You bitch
I want my money back
And don't forget
Don't forget
To give me back my black T-shirt

I wish I hadn't
Bought you dinner
Right before you
Dumped me on your front porch

So you wanted
To take a break
Slow it down some
And have some space

Give me my money back
Give me my money back
You bitch
I want my money back
And don't forget
Don't forget

From: https://genius.com/Ben-folds-five-song-for-the-dumped-lyrics

Ben Folds Five is an alternative rock trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group comprises Ben Folds (lead vocals, piano, keyboards, melodica, principal songwriting), Robert Sledge (bass, contrabass, synthesizer, backing vocals), and Darren Jessee (drums, percussion, backing vocals, songwriter, and co-writer for some songs). The group achieved mainstream success in the alternative, indie and pop music scenes. The band is best known for the hit single "Brick" from their 1997 album Whatever and Ever Amen, which gained airplay on many mainstream radio stations. During their seven years together, the band released three proper studio records, one retrospective album of B-sides and outtakes, and eight singles. They also contributed to a number of soundtracks and compilations. Ben Folds Five disbanded in October 2000, apparently under amicable circumstances.  From: https://www.lyrics.com/artist/Ben-Folds-Five/359896

Dengue Fever - Uku

 #Dengue Fever #Chhom Nimol #psychedelic rock #Cambodian rock #alternative/indie rock #world music #garage rock #surf rock #retro-1960s 

Even when you consider the cultural cross-pollination that goes on in large metropolitan areas, L.A.'s Dengue Fever had perhaps the strangest genesis of any band in recent memory. It's odd enough for a group of white musicians to cover psychedelic rock oldies from Cambodia, but finding a bona fide Cambodian pop star to front the band -- and sing in Khmer, no less -- is the kind of providence that could only touch a select few places on Earth. Formed in L.A.'s hipster-friendly Silver Lake area in 2001, Dengue Fever traced their roots to organist Ethan Holtzman's 1997 trip to Cambodia with a friend. That friend contracted the tropical disease (transmitted via mosquito) that later gave the band its name, and it also introduced Holtzman to the sound of '60s-era Cambodian rock, which still dominated radios and jukeboxes around the country. The standard sound bore a strong resemblance to Nuggets-style garage rock and psychedelia, heavy on the organ and fuzztone guitar, and with the danceable beat of classic rock & roll. It also bore the unmistakable stamp of Bollywood film musicals, and often employed the heavily reverbed guitar lines of surf and spy-soundtrack music. Yet the eerie Khmer-language vocals and Eastern melodies easily distinguished it from its overseas counterpart.
When Holtzman returned to the States, he introduced his brother Zac -- a core member of alt-country eccentrics Dieselhed -- to the cheap cassettes he'd brought back. They started hunting for as much Cambodian rock as they could find, and eventually decided to form a band to spotlight their favorite material, much of which was included on a compilation from Parallel World, Cambodian Rocks. In addition to Ethan Holtzman on Farfisa and Optigan, and Zac on vocals and guitar, the charter membership of Dengue Fever included bassist Senon Williams (also of slowcore outfit the Radar Brothers), drummer Paul Smith, and saxophonist David Ralicke (Beck, Ozomatli, Brazzaville). Ralicke shared Zac Holtzman's interest in Ethiopian jazz, further broadening the group's global mindset. Thus constituted, the band went combing the clubs in the Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach, searching for a female singer who could replicate the style and language of the recordings they had.
After striking out a few times, the Holtzmans discovered Chhom Nimol, a onetime pop star in Cambodia who came from a highly successful musical family (analogous to the Jacksons). According to the band, Nimol had performed several times for the Cambodian royal family before immigrating to Los Angeles. Initially not understanding the band's motives, she was suspicious at first, but after several rehearsals, everything clicked. Dengue Fever made their live debut in 2002, with the charismatic Nimol in full traditional Cambodian garb, and soon won a following among Hollywood hipsters, not to mention L.A. Weekly's Best New Band award that year. Purely a cover band at first, they started working on original material after putting out a four-song EP locally. The Holtzmans wrote English lyrics and music, then sent the lyrics to a Khmer translator in the state of Washington, after which Nimol would adjust the melody and words to her liking.
Dengue Fever counted among their fans actor Matt Dillon, who included their Khmer-language cover of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" on the soundtrack of his 2003 directorial debut, City of Ghosts. However, disaster nearly struck when Nimol was arrested in San Diego in accordance with the stringent, post-9/11 INS policy: she'd arrived in the U.S. on a two-week visitor's visa and simply stayed on. She was thrown in jail for three weeks, and it took nearly a year for the band's lawyer to secure her a two-year visa (his fees were paid through benefit concerts). In the meantime, Dengue Fever released their self-titled debut album on Web of Mimicry, a label run by Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance. Most of the repertoire consisted of Cambodian covers, many originally done by pre-Pol Pot star Ros Sereysothea, but there were several originals and an Ethiopian jazz tune as well.
With Nimol's limited English improving, the band members considered putting some English-language material on their follow-up, but intended to stick with Khmer for the most part, in keeping with the music that inspired them. In 2007, Dengue Fever not only released Escape from Dragon House, but also starred in the documentary Sleeping Through the Mekong, which saw them performing their music in Cambodia for the first time. Venus on Earth debuted on the M80 label the following year; it was eventually picked up by Real World for worldwide distribution. In 2009 they released a CD/DVD entitled Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, which included the documentary and a compilation album.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dengue-fever-mn0000237528/biography

Spectres - Mirror

 #Spectres #noise rock #shoegaze #post-punk #alternative/indie rock #experimental #music video 

Hailing from Devon and based in Bristol, U.K., Spectres are a noise rock quartet combining elements of shoegaze, drone, indie rock, and, to some extent, post-punk. Made up of vocalist/guitarist Joe Hatt, guitarist Adrian Dutt, bassist Darren Frost, and drummer Andy Came, the group's ascent to widespread critical acclaim both on record and on the stage began after they had started to dominate the U.K. gig circuit. The outfit's first foray into the public eye was with the 2011 EP Family. The release cemented their penchant for harsh noise and uncomfortable swathes of distortion, enveloping somewhat straightforward, albeit dark, melancholy pop songs. It was this sound that began to earn the band comparisons to pioneering noise acts such as My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus & Mary Chain.
This led to Artrocker magazine crowning them "Unsigned Band of the Year," a title that spurred on more activity for Spectres as they took up residence in a makeshift bedroom recording studio to record their next EP, the highly visceral Hunger, which was put out by the group's own label, Howling Owl Records. Following this, the band went on scheduling more performances around the country, eventually deciding to relocate from Devon to Bristol. It proved to be a bold move, as the ensemble increased activities with Howling Owl, promoting the likes of Wilde, Towns, and the Naturals. A significant change came for the group when esteemed independent label Sonic Cathedral asked them to support Lorelle Meets the Obsolete on a nationwide tour, eventually landing Spectres a spot on the label roster.
Further success followed when they released their debut album, Dying, in 2015, an effort that gained further comparisons to acts such as Sonic Youth and A Place to Bury Strangers. They were hailed by NME and The Guardian, which stated the band was among those heralding a "new wave of new noise." It was around this time that Spectres had started to fully earn their reputation as a visceral and dangerously loud and raw live act.
The band unexpectedly courted controversy when it recorded and released an unofficial theme song for the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre, a move that started out as an elaborate joke due to the issue of the group's name and the film's title. However, the track ended up drawing in positive attention due to continuous airplay from BBC Radio 6. Spectres then shared a series of angry e-mails purported to be from the management of Sam Smith, singer of the movie's official theme song, castigating Radio 6 for favoring Spectres' song over his. However, the e-mails later turned out to be fake, and Spectres were forced to apologize.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/spectres-mn0000741839/biography

St. Vincent - Your Lips Are Red

 #St. Vincent #art rock #alternative/indie rock #electronic #singer-songwriter #avant-rock #pop rock #ex-Polyphonic Spree

St. Vincent was born Annie Erin Clark on September 28, 1982 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and spent most of her childhood in Dallas, Texas. She began playing guitar at the age of 12, and picked up some valuable lessons on the life of a touring musician as a teenager when she joined her uncle Tuck Andress on the road with his popular jazz duo Tuck & Patti. After graduating from high school in 2001, she studied at the prestigious Berklee School of Music, and recorded a self-released, three-song EP with fellow students in 2003, Ratsliveonnoevilstar. In 2004, Clark left Berklee and joined the extra-large Baroque pop group the Polyphonic Spree as a guitarist and a singer; she toured with the band, and appeared on the sessions for their 2007 album The Fragile Army. Also in 2004, Clark performed with Glenn Branca's 100 Guitar Orchestra for a recording of one of his avant-garde symphonies. In 2006, she left the Polyphonic Spree and joined the backing band of like-minded pop composer Sufjan Stevens. She recorded a three-song EP to sell at her shows with Stevens, on which she adopted the name St. Vincent (inspired by the New York hospital where poet Dylan Thomas died as well as her great-grandmother's middle name). During this time, she also recorded her debut album with musicians including Polyphonic Spree members Louis Schwadron and Brian Teasley and keyboardist Mike Carson, a frequent collaborator with David Bowie. Arriving in July 2007 on Beggars Banquet, Marry Me won critical acclaim, and in 2008 Clark won the PLUG Independent Music Award for Female Artist of the Year.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/st-vincent-mn0000574035/biography

One of the first things you wanted to learn to play on the guitar was Jethro Tull’s Aqualung – where did that come from?

I think that was my dad’s CD. I saw Jethro Tull three times. Tull – three times! My first concert was Steely Dan. I was never cool. But a lot of that – Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young, Neil Young, The Doors, Zeppelin, Steely Dan, The Crusaders, Herbie Hancock, Traffic – all that stuff would have been my dad’s influence, I guess. How many times have you seen Tull, hmm?

Were they not a bit alarming for a child?

If I’m honest, I don’t love the flute – it ranks as one of my least favourite instruments. I didn’t know that at the time. I didn’t understand the novelty of just how brave he [Ian Anderson] was to bring the flute into prog rock. When you’re going back and raiding the boomer record collection you don’t have the same concepts as they do. “Oh, so-and-so was just a so-and-so rip off, these people are corny” – it’s all just exploration for you. It’s nice with virgin ears.

You’ve said there’s a Stevie Wonder influence on Daddy’s Home – was that from your father too?

I knew the sort of young Stevie Wonder era but actually it was right after 9/11 – which was my first or second day at college – and my friend was like, “Just go deep on Innervisions.” And I was like, “Woah, OK.” So it was music that helped me deal with the depth of what was going on. That was when I really got into Innervisions, Talking Book, Songs In The Key Of Life, that particular era of Stevie Wonder that was super-heavy.

How about Sly Stone?

I knew the hits growing up and then dug in around the same time and went back and revisited it recently. Checked out the Long Beach sound and bands like War. Super groove-based but with other influences whether Latin or, like, wiggly stuff. No straight lines. No right angles at all. Groove and feel are like a house of cards. It’s like this elusive magic trick.

You were into theatre at high school – is that where you learned to become a performer?

It was something that really scared me but I got such a thrill out of it. Let me make a distinction: I wasn’t into musical theatre. I was, like, reading Ibsen. I wasn’t trying to be the lead in Hello, Dolly! Musical theatre, I didn’t understand – I was like, “Why would you break into song right now?” I loved David Mamet.

What were your signature roles?

I had a progressive theatre teacher who changed one of the roles in Our Town to a female role so I could have a part. I think I had about four lines and most of it was to look forlorn, which wasn’t that hard as a teen. And then I was Helen Keller’s mother in The Miracle Worker.

You went on to study at Berklee College Of Music but did you ever play in a guitar-bass-drums school band?

I did a bit. I played in bands in high school and we’d do Jewel covers and such. Then I begrudgingly played in a jam band in high school. And then in college I played in a noise band that was very Polvo, all those Sonic Youth kind of noise bands with detuned guitars. It was really fun. I was doing my own solo stuff in the midst of all this. Writing at least.

Can you remember the first songs you wrote?

One of the first things I wrote I ended up using on the song Saviour [on Masseduction] – I’m picturing pressing play and record at the same time on the Tascam 4-track. I don’t remember exactly the first thing I wrote, but I do remember that I would learn other people’s songs and then about three-quarters of the way through I would immediately start trying to write my own things. I’ve never been that great a student, I guess. I think instinct can take you a lot of great places but at a certain point, if you want to keep trying to get better, you do just have to go back and figure out: “OK, this song is great. Why is it great?” Take it apart like a frog in biology. It’s not the sexiest part, but I just find it crazy, endlessly fascinating.

Do you think you’ve written a standard?

A song like What Me Worry? [on Marry Me] was literally inspired by the Great American Songbook. Maybe my song New York [on Masseduction] can go into the canon of songs about New York. It’s a little bit of a hard sell with the word “motherfucker” in it, but who knows? Maybe that would play in 2040, 2050. The obscenity won’t matter. Nobody will care.

There’s a song on the new album named after Warhol Superstar Candy Darling. When you moved to New York after college, were you in thrall to that Warhol idea of the city?

Yeah, I think New York is full of people who have escaped from wherever they’ve come from, unless they were born there. It’s still my favourite city and I still have so much more of a romantic relationship with New York than any other place. I moved there just after college. When I was in college, I would escape Boston and go on the Chinatown bus for $15 and go to the city for the weekend. Hoped I’d find a place to stay and run around and be drunk and see shows. Every single block of downtown has memories – good, bad, ugly, fuzzy – and you’re alive in that place more than other places. That’s my experience and I know I’m not alone. Candy Darling was just so beautiful and singular and funny and I feel kind of a perfect heroine.

On returning to Texas, you were invited to join The Polyphonic Spree – how was that as a learning experience?

I always wanted to be essentially doing what I am doing now but it was so exciting to go from playing little clubs to – I think my first gig with them was at a Spanish festival called Benicàssim. It was like, the elevator doors opened and there were like 40,000 people. The chaos, it’s hot and sweaty, and there’s just that unpredictable ‘What’s going to happen next? Am I going to hop on top of a road case and be wheeled all over the stage?’ We were mostly on the bill with Sonic Youth and the stuff that was big in those days. Franz Ferdinand was really big, Kaiser Chiefs, The Bravery – are all these things ringing bells? Jet was one of the big headliners.

Beyond music, what did you learn from watching other bands on the festival circuit? Any cautionary tales?

One thing that I think of is when I see people with really massive entourages. I know it maybe seems sexy from the outside but you’re paying for all that. I mean, don’t go bankrupt ’cos you’re bringing your entourage around.

From: https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/i-could-be-anybody-today-st-vincent-interviewed/

Wolf Alice - Moaning Lisa Smile

 #Wolf Alice #alternative/indie rock #shoegaze #folk rock #dream pop #folk punk

Wolf Alice didn’t exactly dream big at the start of their careers. They’re one of the biggest bands in the UK at the moment but despite reaching the heady heights of music stardom, they say they never really indulged many wild aspirations when they were young. “Ellie says she just wanted enough money to buy hot lunches every day,” guitarist Joff Oddie jokes, reminiscing about the 2010s, when Wolf Alice were a folk duo starting out in London.
“I don’t think I let myself visualise those, what’s called landmark moments, because you don’t want to disappoint yourself,” says the Ellie in question, surname Rowsell, the band’s singer. She jokes that her only ambition was to play the cult east London pub The Old Blue Last, which was once owned by Vice magazine and was at the centre of the noughties Shoreditch music scene where acts with names like Shitdisco regularly played and misbehaved. It’s hardly the main stage at Glastonbury. “I didn’t mind if people came,” Rowsell adds, “it was just so I could tell people I played.”
Despite this apparent humility, Wolf Alice have managed to reach heights that feel like a rarity for a British rock group these days. Their Nineties shoegaze pop, grunge-indebted riffs and musings on the idiosyncrasies of millennial life stood them apart from the usual four lads and guitar fare that had previously bloated the 2000s indie scene. Since they expanded with bassist Theo Ellis and drummer Joel Amey and released their debut EP in 2014, their albums have topped the charts, they won a Mercury Music Prize for their second record, 2017’s Visions of a Life, and they’ve just received a nomination for their third, the recently released Blue Weekend.
They’ve had to get used to the new level of fame since their last album. With Visions of a Life came the harsh, instructive spotlight of the tabloid and broadsheet media into their lives – The Sun ran a story alleging Rowsell was engaged to the frontman of punk duo Slaves and that they had bought a house in Margate, which Rowsell has denied. Winning that initial Mercury is a moment the four-piece are still yet to process, especially Ellis, who semi-jokes he still has PTSD from the fallout of unexpectedly winning. “It’s so unbelievably amazing but I just so never thought that was going to happen ever,” he confesses, “and then obviously we had to go on the news and we were really drunk.”
Wolf Alice are so down-to-earth, you imagine they don’t bow easily to pressure. Indeed, the burden of following up two well-received albums could have broken most bands but they have not only risen to the occasion, they’ve released one that many see as the truest distillation of their sound and ethos to date. Blue Weekend is a collage of familiar themes – failed relationships, honest self-reflection, anxiety – but even more widescreen, veering from guttural punk riffs to cinematic strings. Wolf Alice have often been accused of relying too heavily on their influences rather than having a definitive sound, but here they’ve leaned into the genre-hopping. “Having one sound and writing 11 variations of the same song feels lazy,” says Oddie. “Different types of music better represent different kinds of emotional content. Angry, loud, noisy things feel appropriate sometimes, but that’s not appropriate for all aspects of the spectrum of human emotions.”  From: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/wolf-alice-interview-mercury-prize-b1888079.html

Psychotica - Valentino

 #Psychotica #alternative rock #industrial rock #alternative metal #gothic rock #glam metal #1990s

The industrial goth band Psychotica was founded in 1994 by singer Pat Briggs, an alumnus of the glam rock outfit R.U.Ready who was at the time managing the small New York City nightclub Don Hill's. Encouraged to form a new band to boost club attendance, Briggs teamed with bassist and Don Hill bartender Tommy Salmorin to found Psychotica, soon bringing aboard onetime White Zombie guitarist Ena Kostabi, Nine Ways to Sunday cellist Enrique Tiru Velez, backing vocalist Reeka, and drummer Buz. After their first live performance, the group signed to the American label, releasing their 1996 debut LP a few weeks after beginning a stint as the opening act on that summer's Lollapalooza tour. By 1997, both Salmorin and Buz had exited to form a new group, Numb, and Reeka was also out of the band; the remaining trio of Briggs, Kostabi, and Velez welcomed synth player Doug DeAngelis, pianist Bette Sussman, bagpipe player Richard Markoff, and koto player Mark Stanley in time to record the second Psychotica LP, 1998's Espina. Singer and group leader Pat Briggs died on December 27, 2022.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/psychotica-mn0000377456/biography

It is an absolute shame that Psychotica no longer exists, and that vocalist Patrick Briggs has eased back into Nightclub ownership. What an amazing vocal talent! Wild and weird, with a Marilyn Manson like gothic undertone and David Bowie glam, I just don't understand why Psychotica never went further. They performed at Lollapalooza in '97, and that was pretty much the end. Patrick had a tendency to perform almost naked, though at Lollapalooza he wore a silver jumpsuit a la Devo. He was on the edge of acceptable behavior, but so very talented, bringing in pianists and bagpipes and symphonies behind his unique music. After Espina, they recorded one more album, Pandemic, that never got released. There are MP3's out on the internet from Pandemic, and I strongly urge you to find them and get them before they disappear. Pandemic has a Georgio Morodor (Cat People Soundtrack) remix of MacArthur Park, along with three not-to-be-missed ballads that Patrick's vocals just make you want to cry on: Valentino, Euthanasia, and Monsoon. Find Pandemic! You won't be sorry.  From: http://saltyka.blogspot.com/2007/06/psychotica.html

The Buns - Stockholm

 #The Buns #garage rock #noise pop #glam rock #punk rock #indie rock #French

The Buns began life playing 'garage secretarial rock' in the basement clubs of home-town Paris, armoured from the norm by pencil skirts, rouge paint and with hair tightly knotted in bouffant buns; they attracted a lot of attention, especially with fans of vintage styles and sounds. The duo quickly progressed from sweat-heavy dives to guest appearances in French stadiums, and a coveted slot on the seminal garage rock compilation, Dirty Mod; the track in question was 'Thrill Me Up', a lyric from which inspired the title of The Buns' U.K debut album, a frantic roller coaster ride of glam punk, and earthy garage rock, Dangerous. The L.P includes the best of the groups earlier 'Mad Men glamour' period, plus the current rock-chic snarl captured to tape by Liam Watson at Toerag Studio.  From: https://wellsuspectrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-buns-dangerous

The Buns' "Stockholm" is 2 minutes 52 seconds of brazen garage rock featuring searing guitar riffs, sultry vocals and heavy drums with the aim to seduce it’s listener into submission.

Where was the video for Stockholm filmed?

The video was filmed in a cellar, a friend's music studio under construction. We needed a dark place because the idea was to film in the darkness with a flashlight.

How does the video compliment the song?

The song is about the Stockholm syndrome so we wanted to connect fear and desire. Being locked and scared, in a dark place, but at the same time loving that feeling of danger. It's a paradox we often find in romantic relationships. An addiction to someone hurtful who keeps us from being free, in a certain way. Being unchained to someone.

Any behind the scenes stories?

We didn't have money to pay a director, nor proper video cameras to film, so we decided to do it ourselves with the video cameras of our phones, it’s flashlights and a vintage video app! Being our own director was fun and easy, because we know each over very well; we knew what we wanted to do and we didn't have to wait for the technical team to be ready. The fact that we were limited with the filming equipment forced us to find simple ideas, with the constraints of that one and only place, as if we were actually stuck in that cellar. One of us also filmed afterwards the mysterious tattooed man in a prestigious hotel in Monaco, but it's top secret. When we got all the pictures, we sent it to a friend of ours who is a professional film editor. We're very proud of this video. It's a rewarding experience to have directed it on our own!

Could you tell us about the ideas/themes/imagery used?

The principal idea was the confinement, the captivity. We wanted to have strong visual elements like the chains and the stone of the cellar from one part, and the mysterious man from the other part, to evoke the prisoners and the sexy hangman. We wanted to mix the dark side and the erotic potential of being trapped. But without falling too deeply into the cliches of sado-masochism.

What is the message the video is trying to convey?

There is a double meaning. First meaning: the clinical Stockholm's syndrome; you can imagine a girl locked in a cellar by a man, discovering she's actually falling in love with him. Second meaning: it's a story about a toxic relationship, a sexual addiction, an emotional dependence, a mental obsession, a fight between reason and desire, love and hate. The girl knows she has to escape from him but she feels too confused and too weak to be able to do it. But people can also just take the song for what it is: a loud rock song with a big guitar riff and a heavy drum!

From: https://whenthehornblows.com/content//2017/10/the-band-explains-the-buns-stockholm.html

Jonatha Brooke - Crumbs

 #Jonatha Brooke #ex-The Story #alternative/indie rock #singer-songwriter #folk rock #1990s

Merging evocative folk, melodic pop, and an edgier roots rock sensibility, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jonatha Brooke began releasing music in the early 1990s, first as a member of duo the Story and more enduringly as a solo artist. Though credited to Jonatha Brooke & the Story, she made her solo debut with 1995's Plumb. Born in Illinois and raised in Massachusetts, Jonatha Brooke was already writing songs when she met singer Jennifer Kimball while they were students at Amherst College in the early '80s. Though they played regular local gigs as Jonatha & Jennifer during their time there, the duo never issued any recordings and took a break after graduation, during which time Brooke joined a dance troupe. By the end of the '80s, however, the group had re-formed under the moniker the Story, and they issued a demo called Over Oceans in 1989. The Story was promptly signed to the independent Green Linnet label, which issued their debut album, Grace in Gravity, in 1991. It wasn't long before Elektra Records expressed interest in the band, in turn reissuing their debut the same year, as well as a sophomore LP, The Angel in the House, two years later. By 1994, however, the Story had split up for good and Brooke began pursuing a solo career. Despite Kimball's absence, Brooke's 1995 solo debut, Plumb, was credited to Jonatha Brooke & the Story. Brooke received sole credit beginning with 1997's 10 Cent Wings, which also marked a shift to a more radio-friendly sound.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jonatha-brooke-mn0000822742/biography

Ten Cent Wings is one of my all-time favorite albums. Period. It was given to me as a gift over seven years ago and I have been giving it away in turn ever since. It is still as fresh to my ears today as it was when I first heard it and that alone is the testament to its artistic excellence. I am certain that these are among those extremely rare works that will never get old for me. I love all of Jonatha's work as she is truly an artist's artist in my opinion but her efforts here are just masterful. Her ability to express herself with words, melodies, arrangements, and just plain emotional honesty truly set her apart on this album especially. I was prompted to write this review after reading another that disparaged 'Crumbs' as a poor arrangement. This song initially defined Jonatha to me, as the first time I heard it I was completely blown away. Her approach was so new and fresh in trying to express her theme that it just came across as tremendously powerful and affecting. 'Blood from a Stone' about her relationship with her mother is equally powerful. To me, the whole album is fabulous but I guess this goes to show you that, unfortunately, Jonatha is not for everyone. She is not trying to duplicate what has already been done but instead, trying to leave her mark on the world and speak to people in a voice that hasn't been heard before, as all true artists do. I guess not everyone can appreciate that approach. If you are interested in hearing a distinct voice that has the power to affect you again and again every time you hear it, listen to this album.  From: https://www.amazon.com/10-Cent-Wings-Jonatha-Brooke/product-reviews/B000002P82/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_next_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=2 

Sparklehorse - Dog Door

 #Sparklehorse #alternative/indie rock #alternative country rock #lo-fi #slowcore #psychedelic rock #animated music video #stop-motion #Quay brothers

Although its name suggests the presence of a full band, Sparklehorse was essentially the work of singer/songwriter Mark Linkous, an alumnus of the mid-'80s indie band the Dancing Hoods. A tenure in the Johnson Family (later known as Salt Chuck Mary) followed, as did stints sweeping chimneys and painting houses. He began working as Sparklehorse in 1995, honing his spooky, lo-fi roots pop in the studio located on his farm in Bremo Bluff, VA. After a demo made its way to the offices of Capitol Records, Linkous signed to the label and issued Sparklehorse's acclaimed debut, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, scoring an alternative radio hit with the single "Someday I Will Treat You Good."
In early 1996, after a Sparklehorse concert in London, Linkous nearly died when he passed out after mixing Valium with prescription antidepressants. He spent 14 hours unconscious on his hotel's bathroom floor, his legs pinned under the rest of his body, and the prolonged loss of blood circulation nearly left him crippled. Many months and countless surgeries later, he was quite literally back on his feet, and his recovery provided inspiration for 1998's Good Morning Spider. Linkous then collaborated with PJ Harvey and the Cardigans' Nina Persson on 2001's radiant It's a Wonderful Life. In between that album and 2006's Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (which featured contributions from Tom Waits and Danger Mouse), Linkous contributed songs to the soundtrack of the film Laurel Canyon and produced Daniel Johnston's 2003 album, Fear Yourself.
The next Sparklehorse project was truly an ambitious one: a multimedia sound and art gallery done in conjunction with Danger Mouse and filmmaker David Lynch called Dark Night of the Soul. The project featured several singers, including James Mercer, Gruff Rhys, Jason Lytle, Julian Casablancas, Frank Black, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, Scott Spillane, and David Lynch, whose photographs made up the 100-page accompanying book. Although slated to appear on the Capitol label in 2009, Dark Night of the Soul ended up dry docked by a legal dispute between EMI and Danger Mouse. Dark Night of the Soul was left marooned as an adjunct hostage in a complicated legal entanglement. Copies leaked out in different configurations, but it became apparent that Dark Night of the Soul's legitimate release was in serious jeopardy. Cutting his losses, Linkous instead turned his attention to a collaborative project with laptop artist Christian Fennesz. The two had previously recorded music together in 2007, and excerpts from those sessions were packaged together, forming the 2009 release In the Fishtank. As of early 2010, Linkous had moved to Hayesville, NC, and was reportedly nearing completion of a new Sparklehorse album. On March 6 of that year he was visiting friends in Knoxville, TN, when he committed suicide at age 47 by shooting himself in the chest with a rifle.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sparklehorse-mn0000008549/biography

Well she's as mean as a needle
Don't get too close to the heater
She's like a mean shop keeper
Who got an extra gun
She about 6'4" and she's a wrecking ball
Now go ahead and kiss her
She brought the bad weather with her
She got you coming through the dog door
She got you coming through the dog door

Now pigs get fat hogs get slaughtered
You ought to walk away
Well you can't but you ought to
Climb the rickety stairs
She got the long black hair
But don't sit there
Electricity chair
She got you coming through the dog door
She got you coming through the dog door

Pitchfork
Crowbar
Claw hammer
Hot tar

She's got ruin in her name
But she can make it rain
She's a small town jail
And she's starving in the belly of a whale
She got me coming through the dog door
She got me coming through the dog door

Pitchfork (Pitchfork)
Crowbar (Crowbar)
Clawhammer (Clawhammer)
Hot tar (Hot tar)

The Nields - Snowman

 #The Nields #Katryna & Nerissa Nields #folk rock #contemporary folk #alternative rock #indie rock #Americana #1990s

Where do you start with the Nields? Let's say that for twenty years you've wanted to write about the Nields, to help spread the word about their music but also to solidify your sense of why that music is so compelling, so worth your time. Where do you start? You could start copy-editorially. For example: There once was an indie folk-pop-rock band from New England called the Nields, and their name involved a grammatical joke. The band's principal members were the sisters Nerissa and Katryna Nields. Nerissa's husband, David, changed his last name from Jones to Nields and played guitar in the band. They called themselves the Nields. No matter how many people named Nields form a group, however, they collectively aren't the Nields. To be the Nields, they would each need to be named Nield. An "s" makes Nield plural. Since in reality they are each named Nields, together they are the Nieldses, "es" making Nields plural. The Nieldses might hang out with the Robertses and keep up with the Joneses. (If Nerissa, Katrina, and David had all been named Jones, they'd probably have named themselves the Jones.) Of course, you can understand why a band wouldn't want to go by the unwieldy name of the Nieldses. Why would they want to go by the ungrammatical name of the Nields? It's funny! A group of indie folk-pop-rock New England young people follow the lead of, say, the Osmonds, who were brothers, or the Ramones, who weren't. But in this case having a cool-or-at-least-coolish-sounding name means embracing a grammatical error. In this way the Nields resemble the long-defunct indie pop band Let's Active, whose name was meant to convey a faulty translation. Or they might be distant cousins to Led Zeppelin, who embraced the power of a spelling error because it looked, you know, heavier. So much for copyediting. Alternatively, you could start with the Nields personally. For example: For a couple years in the early '90s I lived in the same cozy corner of western Massachusetts as the Nields, or the Nieldses, or Nerissa and Katryna Nields and their bandmates. The name the Nields popped up frequently in that area, the Pioneer Valley, to the point of being annoying. I imagined their music was annoying too: cutesy, cloying, crunchy-folky.
By the summer of 2001 I was living in Manhattan and finally saw the Nields perform as part of a series at the base of the World Trade Towers. The Towers stood on an inhospitable, perpetually windswept concrete plaza with terrible acoustics. I have trouble believing that the Nields, homespun hometown heroes of the Pioneer Valley, played in that incredibly unlikely spot, below the twin phalluses of capitalism, but I know they did, I didn't dream it, because at their merch table after the show I bought their 2-CD set Live from Northampton (2001). Through the years that I'd lived in Amherst, MA, I'd spent time in nearby Northampton, but never set foot in Northampton's Iron Horse Music Hall, because no one I wanted to see ever played at the club. Now, years later, I proudly owned a live album recorded there. After seeing that phenomenal show at the base of the World Trade Towers, which was sort of like seeing a band of hobbits at the base of Sauron's tower (hobbitses, Gollum calls 'em, at least in the movies), I urgently wanted to support the Nields because as people they seemed so nice and genuine, because their songs were so catchy and inventive, and because I needed to hear more of the sisters' breathtaking, otherworldly harmonies. I remember asking at the merch table which of their recordings sounded the most like the show I'd just heard. On September 11 of that year, the World Trade Center was destroyed. At some point after that, I wrote to the band and thanked them for their show, which had humanized a forbidding location and left me with--at long last! and in the end--a warm memory of that place. Nerissa sent me a charming reply, saying the show had meant a lot to them too.
It was only in writing this piece that I discovered that Nerissa and Katryna's roots are in New York City. And if you started with the Nields historically, you'd visit their Wikipedia page and website (https://nields.com; see also https://nerissanields.com), then present facts such as that they formed in 1987 and have released, as of this writing, 20 recordings, from the out-of-print 66 Hoxsey Street (1992) to the state-of-the-state, furiously political November (2020). Their Wikipedia page and website and Discogs fudge on that discography, though, because some of the recordings are by the Nields and some are credited to Nerissa and Katryna Nields. In any case, if you were starting musically, you could discuss any or all of those recordings, which are so sparely and tastefully produced that they still sound fresh. You might say that Gotta Getta Over Greta (1996), their bid for mainstream success, rocks and makes the band's Beatles influence explicit with a fun cover of "Lovely Rita." Play (1998) unexpectedly draws on alternative rock and psychedelia, name-checking Ani DiFranco but drawing on equal parts Throwing Muses and Buffy Sainte-Marie--and if you think I'm kidding, sample the kickass, weirdass, rhythmically off-kilter track "Tomorrowland." If You Lived Here You'd Be Home Now (2000) trades alternative rock for classic rock and employs a wide instrumental palette. Live from Northampton, the final recording by the original five-piece Nields, provides an excellent career overview and lively introduction to the Nields' special blend of influences, powerful playing, and impassioned vocals.
The description folk-pop-rock might lead readers to think they know what the sisters' music has sounded like all these years, but prior experience with other music of this kind doesn't convey just how ferocious, somberly beautiful, or playful the Nields can be or how attentive to textures they are; these aren't your average strumming or picking folkies. Nor, more importantly, does it tell you what happens when Nerissa and Katryna sing. The sisters' voices individually display great flexibility, but in harmony those voices seem to draw strength from each other. With my untutored ears I can't tell whether they ever aim for the same note, but the notes they hit seem harmonically suited yet tending in different directions, sort of like Kate and Anna McGariggle's harmonies but wilder. The image that comes to mind is of two violins, with each bow at the same place on the same string yet angled in its own way so as to inflect the note. Meanwhile, the making of that note conveys joy, which becomes ecstasy as notes lead into higher ones. The characteristic Nields sound is of two voices swooping effortlessly, like birds barely having to flap their wings as they ride air currents. On the sisters' recordings over the decades, they gain greater and greater control over that motion.  From: https://www.furious.com/perfect/nields.html

Alice Donut - Madonna's Bombing Sarajevo

 #Alice Donut #punk rock #psychedelic punk rock #hard rock #alternative/indie rock #1980s #1990s

Alice Donut is a psychedelic punk rock band originally from New York City. Formed in 1986, the band spent the next ten years touring relentlessly throughout North America, Europe and Japan, building a perversely loyal following. Creem Magazine described Alice Donut shows as “the most decadent punk rock-fueled all-out orgies I ever witnessed.” Between 1987 and 1996, Alice Donut released seven full-length albums and 15 EPs, singles, and other releases on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label and various other labels. 2004’s Three Sisters, their first record after their hiatus, was recorded as a four-piece with Tom Antona on vocals, Michael Jung on guitar, Stephen Moses on drums and Sissi Schulmeister on bass. Original guitarist Dave Giffen rejoined the group for Fuzz, which was recorded in Brooklyn’s BC Studio with longtime co-producer Martin Bisi and released in 2006. Both Three Sisters and Fuzz were released by Howler Records.
The band’s style and lyrics are eclectic. Their music is a mixture of hard rock, punk, and post-punk and typically features melodic, guitar-heavy, odd-metered, and rhythm based pieces and is often punctuated with brass instrumentation. Many of the members are traditionally - or classically -trained musicians, though rarely on the same instruments they play in the band. Alice Donut’s lyrics take on what they view as the perversities, odd details, and petty humiliations of life. Their lyrical subject matter focuses on topics including depravity, domestic violence, sexuality and eggs.  From: https://alternativetentacles.com/artists/alice-donut/

Alice Donut was one of the core bands of Alternative Tentacles back in the late '80s and early '90s. Their first album catches them at their rawest, but also their most fun. Musically, Donut's style has much in common with the psychedelic punk style of the Butthole Surfers, but I regard Donut as being the more straight-up fun-to-listen-to of the two. The Surfers are great, but in a different way. Alice Donut's work is better informed by a sense of humor and a lively attitude than the Surfers, who usually come off as being much darker and more serious. However, this does not mean that Alice Donut does not pack some weight - in keeping with many Alternative Tentacles bands, Alice Donut follows in the footsteps of the Dead Kennedys with their lyrics - heavy sarcasm, but always socially and politically relevant.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Bucketfulls-Sickness-Horror-Otherwise-Meaningless/dp/B00005YELH 

Suddenly, Tammy - Hard Lesson

 #Suddenly, Tammy #alternative rock #indie rock #alternative pop rock #piano rock #1990s

Siblings Beth and Jay Sorrentino began making music from about the age of five. In their Lancaster, Pennsylvania home, Jay would play drums while Beth sat at the piano. Bassist Ken Heitmuller also began playing early on. In 1989, the trio formed Suddenly, Tammy! and recorded two EPs in their basement studio. With the absence of a guitar player, the band provided a fresh sound in indie pop. Both Spokesmodel and El Presidente were well-received, especially in the College Music Journal. Indie label spinArt's first release was the group's own full-length debut. The self-titled album did well and earned Suddenly, Tammy! a spot supporting Suede. Signed to Warner Bros. in 1994, the band recorded throughout the summer and released We Get There When We Do in 1995.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/suddenly-tammy%21-mn0000489735/biography

HEARSAY: We love the way your music seems to allow a lot of improvisation within a certain structure. Do you have a method when it comes to songwriting? Is it primarily a three-way collaborative affair or do you each work on separate parts and bring them to the rest of the band? Are the lyrics exclusively Beth's department?

Beth: Usually we get together and play and many songs grow out of listening; sometimes I bring some ideas I've sketched out on the piano and sometimes with lyrics - many times an idea will grow out of having all of the instruments together and the music just 'clicks' together.

Ken: I'd say that the lyrics are exclusively Beth's department. Her words are always somewhat autobiographical and I'd never presume to put words into her mouth.

Two other notable bands who manage pretty well without guitars - Morphine and Ben Folds Five - seem heavily jazz-influenced. Has jazz been a big influence on ST? Do you all listen to similar things? And do you have any current recommendations for us?

Beth: Personally, I've developed a taste for jazz over the last few years, although I grew up with jazz records (Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck) mixed up with the Doobie Brothers, Chicago, Carole King, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Billy Joel - all kinds of stuff. Our band seems to reflect some of all of that from time to time, including more current music - I listened to a lot of Kate Bush in the 80s. Right now I recommend Young Chet Baker and I'm listening to Elton John's Greatest Hits (with Rocket Man, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road...); the best.

Ken: Have you noticed how Beth over-uses hyphens and semicolons and I over-use all-caps and exclamation points? (We both overuse parentheses (well maybe a little (JUST a little!))). Personally, I claim little from jazz. Although I own more jazz recordings than the average jazz fan, I know so little about the genre. I know enough to claim that it's probably the most difficult music to be good at - yes, even more than classical music. To be a good classical musician requires mostly athletic dedication. Rock requires mostly that you really mean what you're doing, even if you suck. Jazz requires music knowledge, innate or schooled, skilled playing with finesse, and style. I'm very flattered when people make jazz references to Suddenly, Tammy!

Your self-titled debut album was tightly packed and highly chromatic. The follow-up seems more tranquil somehow and perhaps more structured. Was this deliberate? Was it anything to do with the move to a major label or the introduction of an outside producer? Or perhaps working in a concentrated burst in a professional studio rather than working at home over a long period?

Beth: Probably all of that is true. I don't really hear the album as 'tranquil', but that's probably lack of objectivity! River, Run is certainly quiet, but Hard Lesson always makes me a little hyper. Working at Bearsville was a departure from home; I think the sound of the album reflects the whole experience.

Why did you choose Warne Livesey as producer and what was he able to bring to the project? Was his role to 'realise' your ideas or did he add something new to the creative process?

Beth: Mostly because of his enthusiasm for the music – he was concerned about keeping the band 'organic' – keeping the three-piece sound clean; using acoustic pianos; more of a 'live' sound. We worked very closely with him, but his influence does come across on the album.

Suddenly Tammy's lyrics always seem alluringly oblique and more about specific imagery and particular moods rather than telling a straightfor­ward story with concrete meaning. Do you find things in everyday life which inspire you to write songs or do you prefer to tackle more abstract themes and ideas through specific angles? The theme of uneven relationships or power seems to appear fairly frequently. Is this a theme that particularly interests you or are we clutching at straws here?

Beth: Things in everyday life became abstract themes for me. Something that seems to be so 'normal' (a ride in the car, a talk with my mom) can turn into very strange mixed imagery in my mind – relationships and the problems within are always being sorted out in my lyrics.

Ken: Knowing Beth, I clearly see what many of her lyrics are about. Sometimes the meaning is very clear. She is not too literal, however, with her words. The things she sings about often seem to have a multilayered meaning. This allows for many interpretations and people often apply her words to their own situations.

And there's a kind of dream-like, hallucinatory – sometimes even vaguely unsettling – quality to lots of the songs (Mt Rushmore, Bound Together, Beautiful Dream etc). Do dreams and/or nightmares influence you? Do you feel lost when you're asleep and found when you're awake, or is it vice versa?

Beth: For me, many dreams are clues, sometimes, to things that bother me during my waking hours sometimes (I guess) I suppress thoughts about disturbing issues, and a lot of my 'bad' dreams leave me with many questions and images, which seem to unfold sometimes only when I play music, accounting for the lyrics, possibly.

Ken: Sometimes Beth drives when she sleeps – a sleepdriver.

What images unfolded on the Cine film you sat down to watch In the middle of your first album? Do you have any favourite films or directors and do they influence your writing?

Beth: I don't remember what movie that was; Ken had his projector running. He shows movies in his yard over the summer. I have many favorite films – 2001 is a great movie to watch outside in the dark on Ken's lawn! I also love Hitchcock films and Searching for Bobby Fischer is one of my favorites.

Ken: I think it was The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. It's the Lancaster Public library's copy and is now half splicing tape. Every few seconds the action jumps ahead like a skipping record. I recorded the sound from that film, with that first tape recorder, as a child. It was splicey then. When I borrowed that same print fifteen years later, I recognized the locations where the music skips from the 15-year-old splices – and noticed it to be much more dashed up since then. I don't think people realize that a print of a half-hour 16mm film costs about $500 to replace. Soon, that Seuss will be only 15 minutes long! It makes me sad that kids today won't know that SOUND! That lovely purring of the Bell and Howell Filmosound in the back of a darkened classroom. It puts our Beth right to sleep.

From: http://www.hearsaymagazine.co.uk/suddenly_tammy/

Kristeen Young - Catland

 #Kristeen Young #alternative rock #piano rock #avant-garde #prog punk #operatic punk #multi-genre #no-genre #music video

Holy crap, where did THIS thing come from? I’ve heard some Kristeen Young stuff before and thought it was unusual and compelling, but this record - whoa, mama! It’s full-on ass-kicking weirdness of the kind I used to revel in at the turn of the millennium. Young has been compared to Kate Bush before (her tendency to favor the higher registers, her unconventional delivery), but she also reminds me of a couple of Scandinavian singers such as Sofia Hardig and an artist whose name escapes me. Point is, there is a focused, melodious quality to Ms Young’s voice that you hear at times, but she is making the case here for high-stakes sonic melodrama. Young is a wild thing, untamed and sometimes scary. She takes a risk in virtually every song, and it’s breathtaking. You don’t hear stuff like this very often. And despite the title, Live at the Witch’s Tit, this is NOT a live album. It’s Young’s eighth studio album and, although Tony Visconti is listed as co-producer and he has worked with Young for many years, this album was largely recorded just after David Bowie’s death; Kristeen has said Tony was not around that much. Bowie’s passing and the release of Blackstar affected his availability during the sessions. Guitars growl, the bass lumbers around not necessarily keeping it linear, and Young herself stalks these soundscapes like an utterly fearless musical predator. It’s really quite glorious.
In “You Might Be Ted, But I’m Sylvia,” a title that invites discourse, Young carefully balances some emotive, disciplined singing with a series of loud, boisterous piano octaves. At the one-minute mark, a ferocious sound emerges that sounds at first like it could be an attacking animal, but no, it’s an ominous synth sound distorted to resemble a primitive electric guitar, that bites instead. It’ll take a piece right outta ya if you aren’t prepared. “There’s a chance he might disappear,” the singer tells us, before intoning the song’s title, powerfully, preceded and followed by a hypnotically dissonant piano interval banged over and over, taking you prisoner. You CANNOT remain indifferent to the sound slicing into your ears here. You’ll either find it enthralling, as I did, or you’ll run away with your tail between your legs. “Why Am I a Feelmate” turns up the electronica, and takes things into territory occupied by the Knife (I’d be real surprised if Young was not familiar with Karin Dreijer). The vocal is spooky, partially distorted, and the music seems to celebrate chaos. And yet, Young’s control over this boundary-bashing sound is remarkable. I honestly feel rather inadequate to describe it. It’s thoroughly modern and thoroughly uninterested in anything but its own path. You can follow, yes, but you better stay a few steps behind, or something vicious may chomp into you. “Catland” begins with a child’s voice wanting to coax a sound out of a “kitty cat,” but you just KNOW that kind of cuteness will be short-lived. It is. The song quickly turns into a crazed rocker with tempo and chord changes that the likes of Zappa might have admired. There is no attempt to please the audience here at all, unless you are, like me, in the audience that adores flat-out weird music. The word “challenging” was meant for discs like this.  From: http://zacharymule.com/wp/?p=4370

Drug Couple - Still Stoned

 #Drug Couple #alternative/indie rock #psychedelic rock #neo-psychedelia #psychedelic alt-country

I have always believed that life is what you make of it and that very much depends on the opportunities that arise and how you make things happen. In the case of Miles and Becca Robinson, they had already released one EP, Little Hits, as a band from Brooklyn which had a crazy mix of alternative rock and country and the kind of sound we might have heard if Paul Westerberg had taken over the reins of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and given it an alternative country twist. But big city life clearly does not suit us all and this is most certainly the case for this particular Drug Couple.
One day in March 2020, Miles and Becca literally upped sticks to plan their wedding, headed right up to the hills of Vermont, and soon vowed never to return as they quickly found that they were not missing city life at all. So what do you do when you suddenly find yourselves unemployed, in the middle of the woods and with a load of time on your hands? Being based in a two hundred year old barn they decided to build a studio which they called Freelandia, grow some marijuana, draw on their love for country and American indie rock and record themselves a debut album, Stoned Weekend. With a strong focus on love and hash fueling an unbridled creative spirit, the creation of this album quickly gathered pace. And whilst their developing sound lends more than a passing nod to the likes of Dinosaur Jr and The Lemonheads, there is much more to get your head around before you reach that inevitable transcendental state.
Whilst the majority of the vocals and instrumentation are down to both Miles and Becca, they were also joined by Pastor Greg Faison on drums throughout, together with Danny Meyer on saxophone and piano and Travis Rosenberg on pedal steel. All of this was put together in the Freelandia studio in the wilds of Vermont. In Stoned Weekend, Drug Couple have totally absorbed the DIY punk ethic and created a unique blend of alternative rock and country with a big slice of psychedelia that is guaranteed to chill the very fabric of your soul until you are horizontal and in a state of dream-like haze. From: https://louderthanwar.com/drug-couple-stoned-weekend-album-review/

Drug Couple is (or is it are) Miles and Becca Robinson. They used to be a “Brooklyn band”, until they moved to the Vermont countryside. They got married, grow marijuana, like country and American indie rock, and don’t particularly miss the city. Now that’s straight from the horse’s mouth as it were and yeah, I can see that is an unquestionable truth. Full of farm fresh sounds recorded in their very own barn studio Freelandia “Stoned weekend” is a sweet, sweet record giving you ten superbly balanced slices of seriously layed back guitar-based Americana that will have the hairs on the back of your neck tingling. And yes, I totally believe that you would have had to cut the air in their studio with a knife when they compiled this work. (Perhaps including a scratch and sniff cover would have been appropriate but I guess the DEA may have taken exception).
So, what’s going on here? well Drug couple have definitely zoned in on the chilled out retro sounds that only home-grown horticultural endeavors (which they unashamedly promote) can really bestow on an artiste. They have been widely compared to Neil Young. Hmmm - that needs qualifying. Let’s say Neil Young at his high-water mark with the legendary band he worked with as heard on 1972’s Harvest LP also recorded in a barn! That figures. There is just a certain “je ne sais quoi” about recording in a barn whilst stoned that you’re unlikely to get out of any metropolitan set up that I’m aware of. But there’s more. Of course, there has to be right? To me there are beautifully nuanced nods to Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd too with Miles Robinson’s vocals evoking the soulful rawness of Ronnie Van Zant particularly on the superb opening track “Stoned weekend”. That sets the scene for the whole of the LP which is drenched in glorious pedal steel guitars throughout and just to labour the point “Stoned weekend” concludes with an alternative take on track one “Still stoned” which if anything is even more mashed up than when they set off.  From: https://allmusicmagazine.com/review-of-the-debut-album-by-drug-couple-stoned-weekend/

Blanche - Jack On Fire

 #Blanche #alt-country #Americana #folk blues #Southern gothic #country folk #gothic folk

The packaging for ‘If We Can’t Trust the Doctors’, the debut album by Detroit-based Blanche, includes an old time medicine ad for Blanche’s Nepenthe. The elixir claims to “induce forgetfulness of sorrow, dolor, ennui and wretchedness for those afflicted with melancholia, fits and tempers, neurasthenia, or the vapors”. The music that Blanche makes could easily be the promotional soundtrack for the Nepenthe sales pitch, the accompaniment to its traveling medicine show. It’s a collection of near-spooky gothic country-blues, dirges for sanity and laments for optimism wrapped in reverb, banjos, autoharp, pedal steel, and dank Poe atmospherics. Led X-ishly by the husband and wife duo of Dan and Tracee Mae Miller, Blanche plays old-timey Midwestern twang with one foot in authenticity and the other in well-versed satire.
Blanche was formed after the Millers’s short-lived band Two-Star Tabernacle called it quits in the late ’90s. (Another member of Two-Star Tabernacle — Jack White — would go on to find surprising success with the White Stripes, and later used members of Blanche as Loretta Lynn’s backing band for the critically acclaimed Van Lear Rose.) ‘If We Can’t Trust the Doctors’ was released by Detroit label Cass Records in 2003, was nominated for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize, and is now finding a new life through distribution with V2 Records. Blanche is not yet a touchstone of the alt-country community, but it shows major promise as a potential bearer of folk fringe oddities.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/blanche-ifwecant-2495847373.html

Writhing and preening like a fistful of wild-eyed Southern preachers, Blanche sells sweet snake oil by the wagonload on their debut release ‘If We Can't Trust the Doctors’. Fronted by the enigmatic Dan Miller (the artist formerly known as Goober in the hillbilly-punk prototype Goober and the Peas) and his ethereal wife Tracee, the band weaves a hypnotic blend of old-timey medicine show theatrics and down-home acoustic pickin', all threaded through with a spooky string of murder ballads and women scorned. Along with assistance from Brendan Benson and His Name Is Alive's Warn DeFever, the album was handcrafted by the understated Dave Feeny, whose production reveals layers of banjo, pedal steel, autoharp, and subtly distorted guitars, all toothing together like rusting gears in a Model 'A' Ford rolled off the Detroit lines a century ago. While on the surface the songwriting seems straightforward and simple, the pages within peel back like crumbling photos in a black paper photo album lost in the drawers during the Eisenhower era.
While much of the energy from the album seems tied to the power of the old church, ‘If We Can't Trust the Doctors’ is no gospel album, but rather it taps deep into Greil Marcus' "old, weird America" of dusty 78's on Vocalion and Okeh, and the dusty-toothed wayfaring strangers of the Depression era circuit. The amazing thing about the album is that for all of its folkways influences, it still feels very much a contemporary work; certain to be found on iPods and peer-to-peer lists worldwide. Shining deep underneath the dust of the last hundred years are little glints of Blanche's sunnier moments, and while the band certainly proves that every silver lining has a cloud, the album is perfectly spooky and uplifting, chilling and rewarding, haunting and beautiful.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/if-we-cant-trust-the-doctors-mw0000396906

Tardigrade Inferno - The Worst of Me

 #Tardigrade Inferno #avant-garde metal #alternative metal #dark cabaret #Russian #music video

Tardigrade Inferno is a young band, but already established in its niche. The team itself positions itself as a "metal big top" and focuses not only on music and funny lyrics, but also on appearance. While the band is on its first Russian tour, we got in touch with the musicians to get a little more information about their plans for the near future, new albums and personal philosophy.

Let's talk about personal branding. Do you have a personal brand, do you feel responsible for being a public figure? How do you position yourself to the public?

Yes, there is something similar. There is an image of some kind of leading circus or a teller of scary stories to children, and there is just us as people, and we maneuver somewhere in the middle so that there is both theatricality and sincerity. That is, on the one hand, we have an image with a certain amount of mystery that we protect, on the other hand, we are open to communication with fans.

Do you have some kind of self-censorship, so to speak?

No. That is, we discuss what and how to post and what to write, but this is more editing than self-censorship. We do not have some terrible undercover secrets that we hush up, there are no taboo topics that we really want to say something about but we are afraid that they will not understand us. There were no places in the songs that we would cut so as not to fall under someone's knife.

Do you get compared to other popular bands with female vocals? Do these comparisons offend you?

Of course they compare. We can't remember anything bad. If it was, then it is most likely a matter of taste. The very fact of comparison is not offensive.

Due to the fact that you don’t have a frontman, but a frontwoman, so to speak, there were no such stories when people told you “here is a woman’s place in the kitchen, where you climbed onto the stage”, “a girl should be cute, how can you be in such kind of speaking." Have you come across any stereotypes?

It slips in personal conversations, but very rarely, only if the person is not involved in this. It's a matter of life choice when it comes to a woman's career as a metal vocalist. There are career women; they are condemned by those people for whom such a lifestyle is unacceptable. Our circle of contacts is such that such questions and claims do not arise. Such reasoning is probably characteristic of the people who do not come into contact with such types of art, so our contacts end at the stage of “what kind of freaks are these anyway?” Although recently in VK Sasha was asked to explain a hairstyle.

Are you generally offended by comparisons with Western colleagues?

Offended - never. We may be perplexed when they say about us “you just took a bandname and licked everything like a carbon paper”, but it’s strange to be offended by this, and indeed to react in any way. And when they just compare, there is no negative at all. Even within the band we don't fully agree on who our music is more like.

Is it possible to say that you are trying to convey the serious through a joke in your work?

Partly. The song must first of all work on an emotional level, and if the lyrics are just 100 percent humorous jokes, then it will not be as effective as adding tragic notes or some idea. That is, all this is not based on the desire to say something important, but on the desire to write a good song. And if there is nothing in the song except the surface layer, then it is felt. And it turns out that "to convey something serious" is not an end in itself, but a practical necessity. Of course, not all of our songs are about something other than the immediate plot of the text (at least consciously), but without a periodic feeling that there is something behind the song, it seems to me that listening to music gets boring.

Do you have any strange fans or stories associated with them? Your colleagues often tell stories about fans who stalk them, give strange gifts, and compulsively write comments and letters on social networks.

You know, we have quite a lot of "weird" fans in a good way, which is quite logical, since we ourselves are strange, like our music. Often people come to our concerts in cool strange costumes. We haven't accumulated any stories yet, but now we are skating our first tour, getting to know the fans. There are guys who go to our concerts in different cities. They give us gifts. We were presented with drawings, paintings, last year one artist presented a large painting of Dasha. We still have not found a place on the repbaza where to hang it, but we will definitely hang it, we really like it. Once, guys from Tula came to our concert, brought a gingerbread, but the guards took it away and ate it. In social networks, some fans quite often write to Dasha, but so far there has not been any obsessive persecution.

Isn't it scary to be a musician in Russia?

It's scary to be in Russia. Being a musician in Russia is just as scary as being a musician in another country. Show business will chew you up and spit you out if you don't try, like any other business.

Translated from: http://metalkings.org/interviews/257